In London, a Working-Class University Wrestles With Change

Peter Searle for The Chronicle

Patrick McGhee, head of the U. of East London, on tuition increases: We must "deal with the real world as we find it, not as we might wish it to be."

By Aisha Labi

London

Patrick McGhee, vice chancellor of the University of East
London, has a lot in common with many of the 28,000 students at the
large urban institution he leads. He was the first in his family to
attend university. And he dislikes much about the government's
higher-education reform efforts, which he has deemed "misguided,
premature, unproven and rushed." He is especially opposed to a
measure allowing universities to nearly triple tuition this fall,
to as much as £9,000, or